Random Treasure

In Random Treasure, London-born but Scotish based Roger Stewart looks back at six decades of seeking out and finding objects lost and forgotten about in second-hand shops, antique shops and local auctioneers and salerooms up and down the country.

It started out as an interest and a hobby for Roger, but as his knowledge and expertise grew and increased over the years it became a very lucrative and profitable pastime, too.

Roger Stewart takes his readers through what can potentially be a minefield for the unwary. Is the object you see before you a deliberate fake, an accidentally misidentified reproduction, or is it, after all, perhaps the real deal? A genuinely valuable antique?

He covers how antiques rise and fall in value, what provenance is and if it matters, how an auction works and how to behave during an auction.

He takes a peek at how antique collectors act, what their psychological makeup is and how they behave.

How and why do some amateur antique collectors make the spectacular finds that we read about in the papers or see on the Internet?

Does it take expertise, skill and years of training and experience? Or can anyone do it?

He also has some very useful pointers to ensure that your collecting hobby remains just that, as a hobby and doesn't degenerate into an obsessive compulsion. In other words, a hoarder?

The book is also copiously illustrated with some high quality photographs. Including a press archive photograph of the dreaded Collyer Mansion of New York.

The book is exceptionally well researched and well written and will be a must buy book (or gift!) to every art and antique lover or dealer, every armchair enthusiast or anyone who is a fan of David Dickinson, The Antiques Roadshow, The Antiques Road Trip, American Pickers or Going for a Song.

It's published by The Book Guild at £12.99 and can be purchased here https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.